In the past and even still today, owners of real estate property typically have hard copy paper plans and specifications of the as-built conditions of their buildings or campuses. In more recent times, these record sets are often furnished in CAD and digital word processing formats.
Owners have generally continued to file these records as hard copy documents, not fully utilizing the available information and potential accessibility. Because of this, facilities directors do not often have the information they need about their buildings in a convenient and useful interface that is accessible from multiple points within a distributed geographical area by relevant personnel.
For example, a college campus facilities manager is responsible for monitoring and maintaining a large and diverse building set. In addition to basic building plans and specifications, including architectural layouts and electrical, plumbing, and heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) system information, a campus facility manager is generally responsible for maintenance data and records, audio/visual capabilities, and scheduling information, often at an individual room level. If a maintenance request is filed to replace a lighting element in a particular room in a particular building, a facility manager needs to have the necessary information available quickly, in this situation the specific lighting element type and size and the time availability of the room during which maintenance personnel may enter in order to make the requested replacement or repair without disrupting a class, meeting, or other activity. Significant work hours are lost if personnel must first be sent to the room to determine what service or item is needed, go to a storage area in order or retrieve the necessary equipment or part, and return again to the room with the part, only to find that a class is now in session and the change-out cannot be accomplished.
In an attempt to make facility information more available and accessible, computer-based systems have been developed. These systems typically store and organize information pertaining to a particular building or building campus, or provide access and control of security, scheduling, or climate systems.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,943 to Meyer discloses Internet access to a facility management system. The facility management system described in the Meyer patent generally controls environmental systems such as HVAC and lighting within a building. A primary workstation connected to a network executes a supervisory control program that gathers status data regarding the operation of components of the facilities management system and stores information regarding the configuration of the facilities management system and operational data associated with each level of the system organization. Remote users may access the facilities management system using a standard, commercially available Web browser on a personal computer. The system may be implemented for a single building or a campus system.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0083076 to Wucherer et al. discloses a system and method for linking computer aided design (CAD) elements with non-graphical information within a database. The system may comprise level files and area files, wherein each of the area files may contain a CAD system generated area perimeter having one or more CAD system generated sub-areas and/or one or more CAD system generated CAD elements. In the embodiment described in the specification of the Wucherer patent, which relates to a hotel/casino construction project, the CAD elements may represent HVAC systems, electrical distribution systems, plumbing systems, structural systems, doors, windows, molding, chairs, fabrics, sub-elements of any of the above, or the like.
Starkey discloses a facility management system in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0083953. The facility management system implements a multi-dimensional relational database to support the service delivery functions within a facility as well as the management of the physical plant that comprises the facility. One module of the system provides for the identification of all of the components of the facility, including structure location, architecture, components, contents and personal possessions. The preferred embodiment described in the publication is that of estate household management.
Other systems manage the design and construction of new buildings. For example, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0073114 to Nicastro et al. discloses a business asset management system that allows comprehensive management of an asset from design through building and management. The system captures and manages information throughout the design, build, and manage phases of the resulting asset.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0077939, also to Nicastro et al., discloses a system for defining and managing an asset. The system includes a data store for item specification data provided on a host computer coupled to a network, and a data input toolset comprising at least an item type manager and an item specification manager.
Other similar systems currently available include Aperture Solution's data center infrastructure management and workplace management systems, ARCHIBUS, Inc.'s FM products, CAFM service's computer aided facilities management systems, and MASS Information System Ltd.'s computer integrated facilities management solutions. MAXIMUS, Inc., offers a facility focus and space management product, and RL Labs discloses the FACILITOR 4i application web interface. Western Washington University describes a facilities management application called FacMan for maintenance backlog and capital renewal.
While facilities management systems such as those described above generally provide computer-based access to and management of facility information, none offers a fully integrated distributed reference system. Further, currently available systems are typically complex from a programming and use perspective, limiting their compatibility with a wide variety of commercially available operating systems and requiring a high level of computer programming skill to use and manage.